The West Must Offer Immediate Asylum to Asia Bibi by Giulio Meotti (Gatestone Inst.)

Asia Bibi is expected to remain in Pakistan until her case is once again “reviewed in an appeal process” ordered by the Prime Minister. Bibi’s judicial process now looks infinite. Meanwhile, thousands of Islamists fill the Pakistani streets, calling for her execution.

Many of the values that make the West “the West” are now at stake in her fate: freedom of expression, religious freedom, freedom of movement, the rule of law, human dignity, and the separation of church and state. If the West does not fight for Asia Bibi, for whom should it fight?

“If Asia Bibi is denied asylum in the UK then what the heck is the point of the asylum system?” — Ayaan Hirsi Ali, refugee from Somalia, author and human rights campaigner.

A London where an ISIS-supporting preacher of Pakistani descent, Anjem Choudary, is free and comfortable, while a Pakistani Christian woman, Asia Bibi, would be unsafe and threatened, is the end of the West as we know it.